Of Alcohol and Attempted Sexy Times
by The Scratch Man
Summary: The winter dance arrives, but Julian isn't quite in the mood for it. A drink or two (or seven) renders him buzzed out of his mind and ... oh dear! Drunken shenanigans briefly ensue. Slash. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or its characters.

A/N: Story for V3lv3tLov3. Sorry I didn't really stick with the prompt! But here goes another Hellion/Elixir fic into the world...

* * *

Whoever thought that putting a group of hormonal teenagers into one room for four hours of dancing was clearly out of their mind. And when the said hormonal teens were mutants? _Horrible, horrible _idea.

"How bad can it be?" Scott, Mr. Fearless Leader, had said.

For the first annual Winter Wonderland, the students had erupted into an absolute frenzy. The week of the dance, while the staff tirelessly prepared the gym (because hosting the dance in the Danger Room would have been suicide) for the evening, students could hardly focus on their studies. They gossiped in the halls, tittering with excitement everywhere they went.

Joshua Foley, AKA Elixir, smirked as red-faced girls and boys stammered out a "will you go to the dance with me?" to their desired dates.

He, of course, was sure to land a date –and a hot one. If all else failed, he would always have one girl to turn to –one who couldn't _possibly _resist him… Laurie Collins.

The girl was head over heels for him. It would be too easy.

* * *

Though they hailed for rival teams, Cessily, Noriko, Laurie, Laura, and Sooraya could put aside their differences much more easily than their male counterparts of the teams. There was an exception however; Sofia and Laura did not get along well due to conflicting …_interests_ and more often than not, Sofia would opt out of their meet-ups for 'girl time'.

True, none of the New X-Girls were too invested in the typical obsessions of teenage girls, but they were by no means exempt from constant chattering and giggling (of course, some participated in the noise-making more than others).

Inevitably, their gossip soon turned to the upcoming dance. All present had at least one rumor or fact to contribute to the conversation. Surprisingly, Laura was best at offering up the interesting pieces, and the other girls eagerly asked if she had heard of any plans their male classmates had made.

"Santo's trying to score a Cuckoo," Cessily said, "But everyone knows they think they're too good. Julian's being his usual air-headed self. He's had _seven_ girls ask him to the dance, but he's said no to all of them."

"Seven?" Noriko pulled a face, "Keller's probably being worse than Josh than, but Elixir's getting all up on his high-horse, too."

"And he's said no to all prospective dates, too?" Cessily asked, shaking her head.

The girls expressed their opinions of the two rival teammates, making jabs and complaints over their pompousness as they were wont to do every once in a while.

"I have been thinking," Sooraya spoke up, "This Winter Wonderland has certainly… well, I have noticed that there are some, mainly Julian and Josh, who are becoming far too… arrogant over this dance."

"You think we should do something about it?" Laura asked, catching on.

"I watched a movie once," Sooraya explained, "Where there was a dance similar to the one we are holding. The females in the movie did not like the way their male classmates were acting so"

"-_they went to the dance as a group of friends_!" Cessily finished excitedly. "We should do that!"

Noriko tilted her head to the side, considering the idea. "Not a bad idea," she conceded, "It'll certainly be worth the look on Keller's face. Do you think we could get other girls in on it?"

"Maybe the ones who haven't got dates yet," Cessily said, "Great idea, Sooraya!"

And so, the plan was set in motion. With precise transmission of information, news of the single-girls group spread –and the idea was a hit.

Naturally, as the potential dates ceased to approach him, Joshua Foley became very confused. It was Thursday night and the dance was Saturday, and he was left without a date. His ego refused to let him go back and find any of the girls he had rejected, and most puzzling –Laurie hadn't shown any interest at all in asking him to the dance.

He knew she was going –he saw her with her friends, discussing dress shopping and other _girl_ things. But _why_ had she not asked him to the dance yet? For her to ignore him like this when he _knew_ she had some sort of feelings for her was –was _unacceptable._

Such thoughts occupied Josh's mind as Friday began to pass by. He was a teen of little patience, and at dinner, he finally had an opportunity to talk to Laurie.

He set his dinner tray down across from her, and the other teammates looked up as he did so. It wasn't so often that Elixir sat with the team anymore –he had his own group of friends.

"Hey Laurie," Josh said.

She looked up, smiling, "Hi," she said.

"So," he began, going straight to the point, "Are you going to the dance?"

The girls around her froze. Noriko's eyes narrowed and she looked from Laurie to Josh, then back again, waiting for Laurie's response.

"Yes," Laurie said cheerfully, "We're all going," she said, motioning around the table to Noriko, Cessily, Laura, and Megan. "As a group." As she said this, they seemed to let out a breath of air, smiling.

"Oh," and Josh was genuinely taken aback, "Well if"

"-Laurie does not require an escort who waited until the last evening to approach her." Laura cut in firmly.

"I mean," Laurie said, "Josh, I like you, but… um, I'm going to this dance with my friends." She smiled. "D'you get that?"

"Er, yeah," Josh nodded. Internally, he was slapping himself. He looked like an idiot! "Of course. Girl's night. Yeah. I'm just going to –uh –I have homework. And um, yeah." With that, he fled, forgetting his dinner. He internally cursed himself, and if his skin were not gold, his face would be burning red with embarrassment.

When Josh disappeared from view, Laurie slumped over, burying her face in her arms. "Did I just my chances with Josh Foley?" she despaired.

And so, Saturday arrived, and last minute preparations were made by the dance committee for the Winter Wonderland and many students spent their day in anticipation, grooming and primping for when eight o'clock would arrive and they could finally live out the night of their dreams.

"This blows!" complained Julian Keller, however. It was just hours before the dance and he had just been informed by one of the Cuckoos (he was _pretty_ sure it was Celeste) that he was going to have to be dateless. Some 'girl thing' had apparently come up, and she was going stag rather than with him.

Santo, the listening ear to Julian's current rants about what had occurred, shrugged. "Cess was saying something about a buncha girls going to the dance as friends," he offered up, "I guess the Cuckoos are in on it, too."

"That's –that's ridiculous!" Julian hissed, left eye twitching.

"That's what's up, dude," Santo shrugged again.

"Does it really make a difference?" Brian Cruz spoke up, shaking his dreadlocked head. "Everyone's gonna end up in the same room, no matter who they get there with."

"But the point is _who you get there with_," Julian insisted, still stung by Celeste's out-of-the-blue dumping of his very fine ass as a date. "I can't just –_augh_!" Finding that his friends' stares were blank, Julian abruptly flew away, as he was prone to do when frustrated.

Julian reveled in the feeling of the wind sweeping through his hair, and left his arms outstretched as he flew, letting the cold winter air run in between his gloved fingers.

"You're gonna catch a damn cold," a voice said, and he turned to find Sofia flying up to meet him, wrapped up cozily in a coat, scarf, mittens and hat. "What're you doing?"

Though it had long been realized between the two of them that nothing would ever quite work out, they remained on friendly terms. Julian had, of course, refrained from using his old nickname for her, as it had only created tension. Still, he appreciated beauty in any form and in that way, he considered himself pretty damn poetic. Besides, Sofia _was_ beautiful…

Julian shrugged in response to her question, "Chilling," he said with a smirk, hovering in the air and crossing his arms.

"Punny," she replied. "Getting cold feet as well, out here?"

"Celeste and I aren't …going together… anymore." Julian forced a care-free laugh, "I'm a free man,"

"Oh? I didn't think the Cuckoos would care for the idea…" Sofia said, mostly to herself.

"Lemme guess," Julian said, "You're also going to the dance alone?"

She smiled, "No," she said, "I'm going with my friends."

Julian snorted and turned away, "Right." He said bitterly, "Well see ya later then," he saluted her with two fingers, "I've got things to do."

He didn't actually have anything to do, Julian admitted to himself as he flew back toward the mansion, landing near the boy's dorms. But he'd sooner cut off his limbs than stick around for Sofia's pity. So preoccupied with these grumblings was Julian that he didn't notice where he was walking until he'd started up the stairs to his room and had heard a "Watch out!" and had promptly found himself sprawled on the ground, a heavy weight on top of him.

"Shit," the assailant said, "Watch where you're going!"

"Watch where _you're_ going, you dumbass!" Julian snapped back, blinking and pushing Joshua Foley off of him.

"You were the one who moved into my way, Keller," Josh said, brushing himself off. "What're you doing?" he demanded.

"Since when was that your business, Foley?" Julian countered, knocking the golden mutant's shoulder as he marched past.

"Asshole," Josh muttered under his breath as he headed in the opposite direction.

Julian turned to yell something back, but found himself simply staring at Josh's retreating figure, unable to think of the proper remark to throw back. He shook his head, grumbling wordlessly to himself and all but dragged himself to his room. Thankfully, Santo was absent.

* * *

The dance was in full swing by the time Julian arrived, fashionably late, with his hands in his pockets. He managed to turn a few heads, but not enough, in his opinion, in this made him frown. Usually, social events like this were where he thrived… but the feel was off that night.

Damn those girls and their weird ideas! No doubt it was their girls-going-stag-together plan which had caused all of this awkwardness.

Julian huffed, looking around, and right on cue, was asked to dance. He went off with the girl –Sarah, he believed she was called –chiding himself for freaking out over nothing. He just had to shake off the feeling that something was different that day; he'd be his usual, swaggering and confident self in no time.

But three songs passed and despite keeping up his cool pretenses, Julian could feel his mind wandering away from the dance. Taking a cup of (spiked) fruit punch from the refreshments table, he excused himself from the couple of girls who had taken to hovering around him and ventured out of the gym through the back exit, gulping down the punch.

The swinging door hit someone and forced a yelp of surprise out of them. Unfortunately, Julian had not expected this, either, and stepping out too soon, his body collided with the one outside and both persons went toppling over.

"Two in one day," grumbled the voice beneath Julian, "Congrats, you're officially a creep. Now get the _hell_ off of me."

"Hold on," Julian complained, not budging, "You were the one who ran into me the first time."

"Great. Then we're even now. _Move_," Josh said, shoving Julian away. He made a face, sniffing at the air, "Have you been drinking?"

"It was in the punch." Julian shrugged, "What? Are you going to pretend to be a virtuous non-drinker?"

"I don't drink anymore, actually," Josh said flatly, "My powers burn out the alcohol, anyway after a couple of minutes, anyway."

It occurred to Julian that his surprise at this assertion really shouldn't have been that… well, surprising. He and Josh weren't on good terms –ever –and what he knew of the healer was only the well-established facts.

"Oh," Julian ended up saying rather lamely. He shrugged again and brushed past Josh, back into the gym. And maybe it was out of some weird-ass form of spite or (as Julian told himself) maybe the dance was just too lame to deal with sober, but he drank at least six more cups of fruit punch and the result was that –by midnight –he was magnificently trashed.

Hey, no one ever said he could keep his act together under the influence –at least he could _hold_ his liqor.

"Julian, Julian," Sophia sighed, later, when he was swaying on his feet as she ushered him out of the room for some fresh air, "Whatever are we to do with you?"

"Jus' leave me out'ere t'freeze," he mumbled, dropping to the ground as soon as they were out. Sprawled out on his back, his eyes drooped close. There was –what, two hours left of the dance? He hardly cared… it was rather comfortable out there in the hall and he was inclined to fall asleep where he was.

At some point, he became aware of some people talking around him.

"… no, it's alright, Sophia. You have your fun –I was leaving anyway."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll just drag him up, it's fine." The male voice spoke again.

"If I find out you killed him on the way…" Sophia threatened, only partially serious.

Julian groaned where he was. Who the hell was dragging him off that would try and kill him? Besides a list of villains who decidedly would not be welcome to the mansion by anyone, least of all Sophia?

In moments the telekinetic found himself being pulled to his feet, supported by a strong body.

"…he's never going to live this down…"

And then, because time seemed to escape Julian when he was drunk, he was being thrown down on something squishy –a bed. He sighed blissfully, curling up, before his conscience seemed to kick him awake and he bolted up, looking around groggily. "Eh?"

The room was dark, a bit of yellow light seeping in through the crack under the door. And there were hands… hands undressing him, pulling tie off and pushing him down onto the bed after removing jacket.

Now, in the moments that followed, Julian could quite truthfully blame his alcohol-addled brain for his actions.

His owns hands sought out those moving over him, finding the outline of a person by his feet, forcefully removing his shoes. Julian's groping hands found slender wrists and he pulled them close. There was a resistance and a "no, no, just go the fuck to sleep" and he laughed, dazedly, everything reaching his ears in eyes through the effects reality-warping alcohol.

He cupped someone's face, and it was a familiar motion, one he did often, with many people.

It was dark and Julian was drunk and so his brought his own face to close proximity of his hands. His lips found skin, but it was the skin of a jaw and he giggled to himself; how silly of him!

Distantly, he understood that the person whose skin he had kissed was not reacting well and there was a distinct "what the fuck?" which had him laughing even more. The face was wrenched from Julian's hands and he made a face, grabbing shoulders before they could escape his grasp also.

In his drunken state, Julian found a moment to appreciate how potentially poetic his life was (in retrospect, this was bullshit and he had no idea what his line of thought was supposed to even mean) and he crushed his lips against a surprised, open mouth, swallowing up an expletive that had been partially shouted.

For a moment, Julian tasted peppermint and dry, warm lips moved against his automatically for a couple of lazy seconds, before the owner of said lips realized what they were doing.

There was most definitely a struggle and, bemused, Julian soon let go of his victim, flopping back on the bed with an unhappy sigh. There went any prospect of …well, _that_.

"Jesus fuck!" and "Oh my God!" were hissed at him, but he simply stared up through the dark, unfazed –most likely due to his inability to grasp what was even going on. He saw a dull outline of something… gold…

And then he blacked out.

* * *

Sunday morning found Julian waking up with a splitting head-ache at ten-thirty. Santo was still in an eagle-spread on his own bed as Julian forced himself upright.

With a groan, he dragged his hand over his face and stumbled to the closet, grabbing clothes and toiletries before staggering out into the hall and moving sluggishly toward the shower rooms.

It took a long hot shower and then the splashing of cold water over his face to officially wake up and Julian was part way through brushing his teeth before the events of the night before came rushing back to him.

He choked, spitting out his toothpaste and stared at his reflection in the mirror with wide, shocked eyes and there was no denying it: he'd been making out with Josh freakin' Foley last night –or that morning –and _oh shit._

Julian dropped his toothbrush, swearing.


End file.
